Cannabis Dispensary Sales: Tips to Boost your Sales and Average Order Value During the Holiday Season

With the cannabis industry growing rapidly, it’s time for dispensary and retail businesses to go beyond 4/20 and plan their marketing campaigns for the peak holiday sales season. 

Over the last few years, we have noticed an uptick in the number of cannabis dispensary sales during traditional holidays like Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s - in addition to the industry specific dates like Green Wednesday. 

As reported on Green Market Report, cannabis delivery company, Lantern, saw consumers stocking up their holiday purchases early. They noted that the sales started to increase during the second week of December, with a +56% increase in daily order volume, with a peak a day before Christmas Eve. The company also reported a +110% lift in order volume three days before New Year’s Eve. 

So in this post, we’re going to help you prepare for the cannabis holiday trends early and share some tips that can help you increase dispensary sales. 

Tips to increase cannabis dispensary sales during the holiday season 

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to growing your cannabis dispensary and retail business, let’s take a look at some of the tips that are guaranteed to help you sell more during the holiday season. 

1. Use past trends to predict demand 

Look into your past customers and order data to analyze best-selling products across different holiday dates. Identify patterns in consumer needs, preferences, demand and trends. Using these insights you can plan your inventory according to what sells the most during the holidays, helping you also optimize your inventory storage costs and reduce product damage on slow-selling items. 

2. Create product bundles and bulk deals 

Based on the patterns you identify, group products that are usually bought together or go well together based on the purpose they solve or the preference they cater to. Create product bundles and bulk deals, offering buyers additional discounts or benefits when consumers buy more from you. This strategy can also help you introduce consumers to new products, increasing the average order value during the holidays. 

3. Set up a holiday season catalog 

Similar to how brands create a collection of products available on holiday discounts, you too should create a separate catalog. By doing so, you make it simpler for consumers to browse through and discover the products/ services you’re offering for the holiday season, and the discounts running on them. It reduces the amount of steps it takes for them to find these offers, shortening the sales cycle for you both in-store and online. 

4. Set up different deals and discounts 

While cannabis consumers are more focused on product quality, no one says no to a good deal or discount. But to encourage action during the holiday season as they make other purchases too, it’s important to create a sense of urgency around what you’re offering. 

Create short-term discounts and offers like the following for the holidays: 

• Percentage/ amount off - Offer customers a discount on a defined threshold of the order total. For example, offering a 15% discount on a purchase worth $100 or waiving off $25 on an order of $125. 
• Buy one, get one (BOGO) - Promote buy one, get one deals on products to get consumers to buy minimum two products from the catalog to avail the discount/ deal. Be certain to design these offers to comply with your state and local requirements governing discounted and free items.
• Offer bundle discounts - Offer discounts to customers when they purchase more from you. For example, offer 10% off on purchasing 5 products. 
• Flash sale - You can run daily discounts/ flash sales or create daily themes during the entire holiday season to introduce customers to different cannabis products based on their content. 

5. Give out free gifts and gift cards on purchases 

Make customers feel special during the holiday season by giving away free gifts on purchases at your dispensary or the online store. This can include offering branded stickers, tshirts, holiday cards, free consultation with experts and so on. You can also create holiday season gift cards to encourage customers to buy more during the holidays to increase  their transaction amount. 

6. Upsell and cross-sell with product recommendations 

Make the most of your customer data and past purchases to create upsell and cross-sell campaigns. Send out personalized product recommendations via established communication channels like emails and texts, and train your budtenders to make these suggestions at the dispensary. The more targeted and specific you are about the products recommended to each consumer, the more sales you make during the holidays. 

• Upselling can include introducing a customer to a better alternative to the products they have been purchasing. 
• Cross-selling includes suggesting products that go well with what they typically buy from you. 

7. Make the most of visual merchandising 

If you have a physical cannabis dispensary, pay close attention to how you organize the products or the way the promotions are displayed. Your visual merchandising strategy should focus on highlighting the ongoing discounts and offers, and showcasing the best-selling products up, front and center. Think about how Sephora always has their best-sellers promoted just as you walk in and smaler upsells closer to the register, guiding you into the buying journey that favors their promotions. 

8. Bridge the gap between online and offline 

Give customers the option to choose where and how they want to make purchases during the holiday season. By integrating your cannabis POS system to your eCommerce platform, you can offer customers a more connected buying experience, reducing confusion and duplicate orders. This can help you give customers a more convenient way to shop and offer optimized order fulfillment options. 

9. Enable cashless payments 

The holiday season often means a lot of shopping. With brands offering seasonal drops and the best discounts on their products, your consumers are bound to be spending a lot. Make it easier for them to shop from you by offering cashless payments. With a cannabis POS system like Treez, you can offer to take payments using debit and ACH, making it simpler for your customers to purchase more. 

Additionally, taking cashless payments also helps your cannabis dispensary manage cash better during the peak season. 

10. Offer shopping assistance 

Remember that impulse purchases don’t guarantee a great customer experience. While they may buy more from your cannabis dispensary, it is also important to offer shopping assistance to help them make informed purchase decisions. You can do this by offering an interactive product catalog with all the information they need on ingredients, taste, content, prescription, usage and more, and training your budtenders to follow an education-first approach. 

11. Align all marketing channels 

Marketing and advertising cannabis products is tricky. But we recommend making the most of the channels available to you - this includes email marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization or even using direct mail marketing to promote your holiday season discounts and deals. 

Is your cannabis business ready for the holiday season? 

The one tip we recommend to all sizes of cannabis businesses is to start early and keep your operations streamlined from day zero. 

With the best of cannabis technologies available, you can create and run as many promotions around the holiday season as you like. And at the same time, you get to keep your product, customer, and order data streamlined to keep your operations running smoothly - even during the peak sale periods.